MODERN ART - Oriental Towers

First time standalone reissue of Modern Arts second cassette album. Includes three previously unissued tracks from the album session. Edition of 500 with poster insert."Another entry from the darkly enchanting minimal synth-pop and psych-tinged world of The Modern Art. As an introduction to the world of Coil and Current 93 collaborator (and Sun Dial main man) Gary Ramon and his orbiting bandmates, you cant do better.

"From a time when drummers were as rare as a tune with a melody. It could have been made yesterday, by one of those modern bands of foppish young men, whose parents record collection contained stuff like The Wake and Modern English. A jolly jaunt through some early eighties indie, full of hand played synth lines, classic drum box sounds, poppy sequences, and introverted vocals.""Now this is my kind of icy, desolate lo-fi music. A lot of 80s music that I listen to nowadays seems to predict the coming of vaporwave & hypnagogic pop 25+ years later, and this album is no different, even if its only really predicting the bleaker aspects of the latter. Still, this stuff is occasionally very pretty (Stars)... Theres plenty of diversity on a track-for-track basis: compare the dreaminess built out of layered acoustic guitars on Beautiful Truth to the more energetic and mechanical Little Ballerina. Or just compare any other track to the untitled closer, which is basically ambient guitar + some echoed sample hovering off in the distance."

Formed by Ramon in the early 1980s, Modern Art released two albums on vinyl, and a significant amount of impossible-to-find cassettes. Some of this material was compiled in a highly regarded 3-LP (sold out) box set, made in 2013 by Vinyl on Demand. This remastered reissue of "Oriental Towers," their second cassette album, originally released in 1983, also includes three previously unissued tracks from that session. On this album you will find examples of what was going on in England during the pinnacle of the post-punk scene—an inspired time that encouraged young musicians to develop music influenced by the likes of Joy Division, Cabaret Voltaire, Throbbing Gristle and Clock DVA. " - Color Tapes.

After nearly a decade of false starts, multiple game plans veering off the rails, and a handful of shattered hopes and/or dreams, the odyssey is finally complete—the new Fusetron site is here.

This is the first phase of a multipart rollout that will span the next few months: the currently browsable stock includes miscellaneous new releases from the past 8+ months (we have a lot of catching up to do), plus approximately a third of our backstock. Note that we’ve reduced/slashed prices on many titles and will continue to do so in order to make room for new stock. We’ll also be expanding / tweaking / improving / debugging the site itself (for example, we still have work to do on the automated international postage system, not to mention the inevitable inventory discrepancies that come with transferring an ancient and massive database to a new system).

Over the next few months, as we take inventory, clean house, and delve into our storage, we will be uploading thousands of additional items, gradually, on a near-daily basis. This will include the majority of the LPs, as well as many titles, in all formats, once thought long-gone. Many currently “sold out” items are likely to resurface.

Finally, once our general backstock is up (probably in the next two or three months) we’ll begin making our extensive stockpile of rarities available online for the first time: tons of random out-of-print titles, "deadstock," warehouse finds, secondhand collectibles, etc., accumulated over the past few decades.

Frequent/returning customers will be getting early access to these items. Details to follow on how this will work (a priority mailing list? a 'frequent flyer'-like program?), but it will not be based on dollars spent. We want to reward those who consistently support us, especially in the discogs marketplace era (to those who show up trying to poach five copies of a one-off rarity, and nothing else, ever… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ).

So—we suggest you take some time to dig through the site—even we’ve been surprised by what’s been turning up, and there’s much more to come.